James McAvoy

No, you havenâ€™t seen so many robbery films that â€œThe Bank Jobâ€ will seem like just another heist movie. Itâ€™s not. Out this week, the entertaining take on a real 1971 London robbery â€” well-documented in the extras â€” threads through government cover-ups and gangster shenanigans.

Plot-heavy and character-light, the complicated, fictionalized story scampers at a caperlike pace.

Director Roger Donaldsonâ€™s saga is bolstered by whiskery action star Jason Statham as leader of the second-rate crooks who plan the theft. Itâ€™s good escapism.

Just be prepared for a run of violence in the homestretch.

Extras: Extended scenes; making-of short; short on the real theft; digital, downloadable copy on second disc.

Trippy photos

The best thing about â€œShutter,â€ an all-too-familiar ghost film, is a slick extra that teaches how to create a spirit photo in less than four minutes, a trick everyone should know.

In the movie, a ghostly white blur appears in a newly married coupleâ€™s photos after they accidentally hit a woman in the road with their car. Her body vanishes. They have travel plans. So it goes.

Grumpy hubby (Joshua Jackson) starts a new job in Japan as a fashion photographer. Hence, the â€œShutterâ€ title, rather than the more accurate â€œBummer.â€

While he works, his loving wife (Rachael Taylor) sees the weird woman in subway windows, gets jumpy and decides to investigate.

The filmâ€™s second half focuses on the mystery and is an upgrade on the first half; donâ€™t mistake that as a recommendation.

Christina Ricci plays the vulnerable, reclusive title character in â€œPenelope,â€ a contemporary fable about a girl born with a pig snout for a nose because of a family curse.

The way to lift the curse is to marry an aristocrat, a problem since her blueblood suitors find her so repugnant that most leap through glass windows in fear.

And thatâ€™s the rub: Ricciâ€™s still cute as a button despite the prosthetic proboscis, so itâ€™s nearly impossible to suspend disbelief, and the suitorsâ€™ exaggerated fright-and-flight response looks ridiculous.

Produced by Reese Witherspoon, who takes a supporting role, the fairy tale is sweet despite its ungainliness.

Catherine Oâ€™Hara plays Penelopeâ€™s high-strung mom. James McAvoy (â€œWantedâ€) is a disheveled, nice-guy gambler whoâ€™s paid by one of the paparazzi (Peter Dinklage) to court Penelope and snap her picture.

Though the storytellingâ€™s clumsy, the film is still family-friendly because of Ricciâ€™s affability.

Extras: Making-of short.

Bad trip

Martin Lawrence plays an overly protective control-freak father who insists on chaperoning his daughter (Raven-Symone) on a â€œCollege Road Tripâ€ to choose her new school.

Despite a likable cast â€” the begging pigâ€™s great â€” the film peaks at moderately amusing and cliched, valleys at uniquely stupid and cliched. There are mostly valleys.

Thereâ€™s also plenty of mugging, teenage girls shrieking and upbeat background music. Chunks of comedy are mean-spirited, surprising given the Disney brand.

The movie grows less appealing as it goes on â€” except for scenes with Donny Osmond in a self-parody as a giddy Up With People-ish dad.